Chicken Pot Pies for Two

Does anything say comfort food more than a hot chicken pot pie?  Forget that frozen stuff from the store.  A million calories, tons of sodium and ingredients you can't pronounce.  Homemade takes 20 minutes to prep and 15 minutes to cook.  It tastes soooo much better than anything Swanson or Marie Callender ever dreamed of.

This recipe is easily doubled.  If you make your own pie crust roll it out into a rectangle rather than a circle.  It will make it easier to fill your soup crocks.  You can use boneless, skinless chicken breasts but I like to use the tenderloins, just because it's easier to make adjustments when you're weighing them.  You want half a pound.  Less and the pot pie won't tastes as good.   More, and there won't be room in your crock, or enough gravy.    I used crocks with a 5 inch diameter.  You can use 6, but any larger and you won't have enough filling.

Not pictured with the ingredients is 1/3 cup of butter and pie crusts.

Put the chicken, peas and carrots into a small saucepan.  Feel free to also add ½ cup of celery.  I HATE celery.   I use it in some of my recipes but not this one.  Bleah. 

 

Add a full cup of chicken broth to the saucepan (you’ll only need 7 oz for the gravy but that one ounce will boil away…)  Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Pour through a sieve, saving the broth.  Set solids aside.

In the same saucepan melt 1/3 cup of butter.  Add the onions and cook till softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.  Don’t let the onions brown!

Add the flour, salt and pepper and stir until no lumps remain.  Cook, stirring frequently, until flour loses its raw flavor, about 3-5 minutes. 

  Stir in the chicken broth and milk. 

 

Simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally.

Take your pie crust (I was lazy and used a store-bought crust) and cut it into quarters.  Line your soup crocks with the crust.  You’ll need to do some manipulating to get full coverage.  My crocks were pretty thick and I wasn’t sure the bottom crust would cook thoroughly with the pie goop in it so I precooked the crusts in a 475 degree oven for 5 minutes to give them a head start. 

Fill each crusty crock with half of the chicken/peas/carrots. 

Slowly spoon the gravy into the crocks.  Stir gently so that the gravy doesn’t just sit on top but gets mixed in with all of the pie filling. 

 

Cut circles from 2^nd crust a little larger than the diameter of your crocks.  Add the top crust and crimp, being careful not to break the precooked crust.

 

Bake in a 475 oven for 15 to 20 minutes until top crust is golden brown and delicious.  Let cool 10 minutes and serve.  Mmmm delicious mini chicken pot pies!